After leaving Latacunga on Tuesday, we spent a couple of days at La Casa Verde in the popular town of Banos. La Casa Verde is just outside the main town centre, away from the crowds and is an oasis of calm after the busyiness of town, with all its adventure tour operators and tourist trinket shops.
To get here we drove through the spectacular mountain scenery of the Andes, crossing the lava field of the volcano Tunguhuara, which means ‘Throat of Fire’, to get here. Very much an active volcano since 1999 (when the town of Banos was evacuated), it regularly erupts most years and we passed works that appeared to be a part of a programme to keep the lava away from the town.
Three nights at La Casa Verde gave us a brief time to begin acclimatising before we head further down to the edge of the Amazon itself, when we go to seen an old friend at Puerto Napo.
